From J. D. Hooker 14 December 1866
Summary
Scarlet seed is Adenanthera pavonina. JDH’s suggestion on how disseminated.
On Herbert Spencer, "all oil no bone – a thinking pump", but his paper on sap and wood [Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. 25 (1866): 405–30] is good science. His refusal to bring a specimen for analysis when confronted by JDH.
Bentham and Martin disagreement.
Speculations on New Zealand flora.
Albert Günther’s paper on fishes on each side of Isthmus of Panama [Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. (1866): 600–4].
On the quantity (bulk and weight) of organic life [matter].
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Dec 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 121–6 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5305 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … vol. 13, letter from Charles and Emma Darwin to J. D. Hooker, [10 July 1865] and nn. …
- … 7 and 8, and letter from J. D. Hooker, 13 July 1865 and n. 24). CD had discussed the …
- … J. D. Hooker, [12 December 1866] and n. 5). He refers to William Spottiswoode and his wife, William Edward Hartpole Lecky , Thomas Henry Huxley , Benjamin Collins Brodie, Philothea Margaret Brodie , William Rathbone Greg , and Hensleigh Wedgwood . He also refers to Greg’s book, The creed of Christendom ( Greg 1851 ). The second part of Genera plantarum (Bentham and Hooker 1862 –83) was published in 1865, …
From J. D. Hooker 25 December 1866
Summary
Analysis of New Zealand flora; proportion of indigenous annuals.
Uniform climates are poor in species.
Evergreen and deciduous vegetation: relationship to flora and fauna.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 25 Dec 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 127–8 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5324 |
To J. D. Hooker 5 December [1866]
Summary
Is sending some plants and seeds to JDH.
Thanks Mrs Hooker for telling him of a life of his grandfather [Erasmus Darwin] of which he had not heard.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 5 Dec [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 307 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5295 |
From J. D. Hooker 4 December 1866
Summary
Lyell’s volume [Principles, 10th ed.] received.
"We must now keep him straight anent origin and development."
Some of Spencer’s new part is interesting but much is dull and ponderous.
Huxley’s Elementary physiology [1866].
Has finished his New Zealand manual [Handbook of New Zealand flora (1864–7)]. New Zealand flora [and past geological conditions] suggest islands were once connected.
Speculates on the total amount of living organised matter on the globe, and whether it varies.
Balfour Stewart on sunspots.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 Dec 1866 |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 114–17 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5294 |
Matches: 3 hits
- … vol. 13, letter from J. D. Hooker, 1 January 1865 and n. 13). In his recent lecture …
- … J. D. Hooker, 5 December [1866] , and letter to Fritz Müller, [before 10 December 1866] and n. 6). CD’s annotation probably refers to the woodcut that accompanied Müller’s article on climbing plants, published in Journal of the Linnean Society ( Botany ) 9 (1866): 344–9. The journal’s title had recently changed from Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society. See also Correspondence vol. 13, letter from Fritz Müller, [12 and 31 August, and 10 October 1865] . …
- … J. D. Hooker 1853–5 , 1: xxiii–xxiv). In his study of the geology of New Zealand, Ferdinand von Hochstetter had reported the discovery of whale bones in the Waitaki Beds, which form the boundary between Otago and Canterbury provinces ( Hochstetter 1959 , p. 24). The reference is to Julius von Haast and to J. F. J. von Haast 1865 . …
To J. D. Hooker 10 December [1866]
Summary
A confounded cock ground the crimson seeds up so CD could not find them in its excrement. CD is puzzled by how seeds can be disseminated if merely ground up by birds. Perhaps like acorns from seeds accidentally dropped by birds?
A woodcock’s leg with dry clay clinging to it, from which CD has grown a microscopical rush.
Spencer would have been wonderful if he had trained himself to observe more.
On New Zealand flora and connection with Australia.
Difficulty of speculating about the amount of organic chemical change at different periods.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Date: | 10 Dec [1866] |
| Classmark: | DAR 115: 308, 308b |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5300 |
To Fritz Müller [late December 1866 and] 1 January 1867
Summary
Thanks for observations on dimorphic plants. Dimorphism prevalent in certain groups throughout the world.
Retarded fertilisation in certain orchids.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Johann Friedrich Theodor (Fritz) Müller |
| Date: | 31 Dec 1866 and 1 Jan 1867 |
| Classmark: | The British Library (Loan MS 10 no 11) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5331 |
To Edouard Bornet 1 December 1866
Summary
Thanks JBEB for Papaver seeds. Has long wished to see some of the closely allied subspecies and hopes to make some crossing experiments with them.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Jean-Baptiste-Édouard (Édouard) Bornet |
| Date: | 1 Dec 1866 |
| Classmark: | Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Bibliothèque de Botanique, Paris (Ms CRY 501, fol. 387) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-5292 |
| letter | (7) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (4) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (3) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (3) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Bornet, Édouard | (1) |
| Müller, Fritz | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (7) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (5) |
| Bornet, Édouard | (1) |
| Müller, Fritz | (1) |
